I’ll spare you good readers the highlights. Here is a lowlight. This is what a 10-ply radial does under a 12,000 pound trailer when it suffers belt separation. The first view isn’t too ugly:
…but the following shot gets the point across. Ugh:
So, now that I’m back home I need to haul the trailer over to the repair shop. When the tire blew it ripped some of the sheet metal skirting to shreds. Nifty!
And yes, it could have been much, much worse.
It’s good to be back. I’ll try to make a real useful blog entry tomorrow.
Kevin Closson's Blog: Platforms, Databases and Storage 
Oh man, good thing nothing serious happened. The trailer could have easily caused you to lose control of the SUV. Must have been scary.
SUV? Gasp. You could drive an SUV into back of that trailer! 🙂 Ok, machismo aside, it turns out that a blowout on a 5th wheel trailer is not as dangerous as one towed with a ball hitch due to weight distribution. On that trip I had 5200lb on the front truck axle, 7100 lb on the rear truck axle and 9300lb on the trailer axles…I drive right by a weigh station on most trips 🙂
Probably the thing I hate the most is finding myself without a spare one the sole spare I carry gets put on as was the case in this blowout…